Despite the spate of management crises facing some of the sector education and training authorities (Setas), South Africa is winning the battle to address skills shortages in the country.
According to the Department of Labour’s 2003 implementation report, due to be released by Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana at the National Skills Development Conference (October 14 to 16), shows that the number of learnerships registered with the labour department has doubled since March 2002.
South Africa’s skills shortage has been attributed to the high level of unemployment in the country because many people, especially the previously disadvantaged, do not have the necessary skills to enter the labour market.
In March 2000 the government established the 25 sectoral training agencies to provide training for workers, the unemployed and those working in small businesses. They represent the most important attempt to address the skills crisis that hamstrings the South African economy.
According to the report, 262 learnership programmes had been registered by 23 Setas with the Department of Labour by March 2002. Approximately 8% of these were being piloted and 3 203 individual learnership agreements had been signed between employers, training providers and learners. The report also highlights a slight increase in the number of enterprises, employing more than 150 workers, that paid their levies during the 2002/2003 as compared to the 2001/2002 financial year (an increase of 625 employers).
‘The number of those claiming grants has increased by approximately the same number as the increase in levy-paying firms (that is 604). However, the percentage of those claiming grants (as a percentage of those paying levies) increased by almost 5% — from 66,94% in 2001/2002 to 72,19% in 2002/2003,” reads the report. It says the number of enterprises employing between 50 and 150 workers and paying levies has increased by over 800 between 2002 and 2003.
The number of those claiming grants also increased by 1 133 from 2 591 to 3 724 during the same period, pushing the percentage of claims to just over 50% — well past the 40% target set for March 2005.
The overall target set by the National Skills Development Strategy is to reach 80 000 learners by March 2005. Of this number 85% of learners should be black, 54% women and 4% people with disabilities.
Labour department spokesman Snuki Zikalala said the department was doing everything in its power to ensure that more learners are taken on board to increase the pull of skilled people in the work place.
To reduce the level of unemployment Zikalala said business and government have agreed to register 72 000 unemployed learners by May 2004. The government has committed to take on board 10 000 learners, while business has agreed to take 62 000 learners into learnership. Already the Department of Labour, said Zikalala, has started the process of taking 1 000 learners into learnership.
Business, on the other hand, has announced during the recent eighth annual National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) summit a new, unified business organisation to accelerate the implementation of the Growth and Development Summit (GDS).
Meanwhile a task team comprising social partners (labour, business and government) has been established to look at the implementation of the GDS. While the government has expressed delight at the progress made to enhance the skills backlog, it also acknowledged that more still needs to be done to address skills shortage in the country.
Zikalala said his department, through information provided by the Setas and research from both public and the private sectors, has identified major and minor skills shortages in the country. Skills that are currently in short supply include scientists and researchers, experienced and senior qualified managers in finance, project managers, production planners and logistics managers.
There is also a shortage of professional, qualified and experienced technicians and associated professionals in the field of ICT — computer programmers, computer system analysts, computer system designers, professional software engineers and computer network managers.
Zikalala said the country was also in dire need of macro-economic researchers, venture capital specialists, energy-planning specialists, medical specialists, including medical officers, and specialists in theatre, ICU, orthopaedics, health therapists, physiotherapists, dental therapists and radiographers.
Other skills that are in short supply include agricultural economists, forensic investigators, state veterinarians, pharmacists, biotechnology managers, quantity surveyors, architects and agricultural product technicians.
Because of the past inequalities and low levels of education, especially among the black population, said Mdladlana, the country has a short supply of mining engineers and environmental engineers. ‘We have taken steps to address these anomalies. We have allocated R135-million to scarce skills bursaries,” he said.
He said that during 2002/2003, 577 learners were awarded postgraduate bursaries in fields of study including auditing, actuarial sciences, biotechnology and mathematical sciences.
Another 2 688 students were awarded undergraduate bursaries in the areas of commerce, engineering, computer science and tourism management. Mdladlana said the recorded R2,8-million surplus from Setas would have to be urgently used for skills development in the country.
‘It is unacceptable that Setas have such huge sums of unspent money when we have a critical shortage of skills.” He said the conference, which will be held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, would address the shortage of skills and put mechanisms in place that would ensure that Setas deliver on their mandate.